


Born to Command

by Sharpiefan



Series: The Shakespeare Series [7]
Category: The London Life (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Gen, Regency
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-09 02:56:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6886633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharpiefan/pseuds/Sharpiefan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robbie has returned home for the summer holidays and has a big decision ahead of him regarding his future. The first person he tells is his younger sister Viola.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Born to Command

**Author's Note:**

> Posted with Rose's blessing. Yes, I had to borrow Viola. This originally started out as the prelude to Robbie's interview with his father but I couldn't make the jump between the two scenes, and this expanded into its own thing. I may do the interview another time.)

_We were not born to sue, but to command_

   – Richard II, Act 1, Sc 1

 

**Rotherham Park, Summer 1799**

“You're looking ever so serious, Robbie.”

Robert Fitzgerald, the seventeen-year-old younger son of the Earl of Rotherham, reined his horse in and waited for his younger sister to catch up with him. It was summer, glorious glorious summer, and he had arrived back home from school only yesterday, so today was the first chance he had had to ride in some time.

Viola, five years younger than him (well, nearly), had come out with him for the ride across Rotherham Park, and looked simply splendid in her dark red riding habit, even if she was only seated on a pony, in deference to her age and size.

“Do I, Vi?” he asked as she came up to him.

“Well... no-o, not now. But you've been looking serious ever since you got back,” Viola said, looking from his face to the view of the house laid out before them, and back again. “What's the matter?”

“I've been thinking about what to do when I leave school,” he said, looking away from her to the view. “I mean, I could leave school now, if I wanted, but I need something to do, and -” He broke off and looked at her. “Vi, what would you think if I joined the army?”

“The army?” She blinked and looked at him, the prospect of the house all but forgotten. “Why would you...?”

“I don't have the head for the Church or the Law – they're all sorts of stuffy and need too much reading and everything. I don't want to go to university – that's much more Richard's thing, anyway. But I do need to do something, and I'm too old for the Navy – I don't like mathematics, anyway.”

“But, the Army?” She looked thoughtful. “I don't think I can see you in a red coat, marching around - and all that fighting...”

“I was thinking of the cavalry – light cavalry. I know it costs more, but I think that I am much more suited to that than to the infantry, or indeed the heavy cavalry. I am sure Papa will not mind the purchase price; and it would be something I could do.”

She understood his inference there, he saw. He wanted something active, something where he could make himself useful, and although the Church and the Law were no doubt good professions and worthy ones, they were not active in the way that he needed.

“You have thought a deal about it, have not you?” Viola said, turning the idea over in her mind.

“Oh, a great deal,” Robbie agreed. “I thought if you could see the sense in it, then Father will – and I don't intend to go just yet. Though I am not sure what use another whole year at school will be. I think I had rather do it sooner than later. And I can already ride, and fence, and I am used to giving orders. I need focus only on learning the manoeuvres, and I am sure I shall pick them up without much trouble.”

“But, the Army – you will go away and we shall not see you again!” Viola said, the enormity of that possibility only just occurring to her.

“Not at all,” Robbie replied, reassuringly. “Officers get furlough, you know, and it is not as though we cannot write. Anyway, I don't intend to go just yet, even though there are cornets of sixteen.” He shrugged and his horse snorted and shifted sideways. “I have not yet spoken with Father about it and there are all sorts of arrangements to be made and all.”

Even with all those, it would be possible to be ready to join a regiment in the autumn rather than returning to school. Robbie found that he was both excited by and nervous of the prospect, and wanted the chance to really think it through. It would be so easy simply to drift through life aimlessly, merely taking a career because it was a good idea and there were family connections, but this seemed the thing that was overall best suited to him and his temperament. After all, it was an active way of life and required discipline and steadiness, but quick thinking and confidence had their place too, and it was not as though he was lacking in those.

He just hoped that his father could be persuaded of the merits of such a choice; he felt that he would make a poor fist of it were he to take silk or the cloth. And he could not see himself being very happy in either, unlike the bookish Carruthers, whose father had all but promised him a living already. Yes, there was the outlay – uniform, kit, horse and tack, the commission itself – they were not cheap. But if the Earl of Rotherham could not spare the money to set his younger son on such a road... Well, there were worse things in life.

He could not help the chuckle that rose to his lips. His father had written to him recently to say that it was past time that he considered a choice of profession. No, Lord Rotherham was not likely to deny him this, not when he had not only considered it but also thought what was best likely to suit him.

The small sound made Viola turn her head again to look at him.

“Race you to the house?” Robbie said, the serious moment broken.

She needed no persuading and immediately urged the pony into a canter down the gentle green slope before them. Robbie followed, holding his bigger horse back, though not so much as to make it obvious.

They came clattering into the stableyard, windswept and laughing, Viola winning by a length and the enormity of Robbie's leaving soon entirely forgotten in the pleasure of the moment.


End file.
